At least this time Rick St. Croix volunteered for the job, and hopefully got some danger pay to go with it. Thirty years ago, he was essentially dragooned into joining the Maple Leafs and exposing his vulnerabilities to public display. And scorn.

As he sat watching four members of the Leaf goalie depth chart in a minor-league scrimmage Monday at the Ricoh Coliseum, the Kenora-born St. Croix remembered his transfer to a very different Toronto back in 1983 as a backup under head coach Mike Nykoluk to Mike Palmateer, back in the sixth year of the Blue Jays, long before the SkyDome was built and the year Bob O’Billovich took the Argonauts to the Grey Cup to end a 31-year drought.

“We didn’t win enough to have great memories,” said St. Croix, whose NHL career ended after two years with the Leafs. “It was certainly different from where I was coming from, where we were winning all the time in Philly.

“On that journey, I learned a lot of things about life and myself, too. So how important is that?”

Before that, he had played several seasons with the AHL Maine Mariners, some with Brian Burke as a teammate, a time when he was tutored by one of the greatest of ’em all, the incomparable and very demanding Jacques Plante.

“What an opportunity that was for three years. I talked to him, had dinners with him, got to know him,” said St. Croix. “When he taught us he was pretty strict. Back in the late ’70s, he would say, ‘I don’t want you guys to go down once this practice.’ If I ever told that to a goalie now he’d never come to my school! But we tried. We listened and respected him and we did it.”

St. Croix started selling Christmas trees as a side venture after he retired from playing during the 1980s using a piece of land he bought near Frankford, Ont., and to this day he still sells trees in Winnipeg during the holiday season. But for 25 years he’s mostly been coaching goalies, including a stint with Dallas in which he was part of the Stanley-Cup winning squad in 1999.

“My philosophy in terms of each goalie is to get to know who they are, what they stand for, what’s important to them and try to connect with how I can help them become a better version of themselves,” said St. Croix.

“I think if it’s too hard, too black and white, the goalie loses who he potentially was back in junior or college when he played a looser, more creative game. I don’t want them to be so methodical and robotic that the tendency is to just do everything by the textbook.”

He knows the same fate awaits him as befell Allaire if, when the NHL resumes, Leaf goalies fail. In Toronto, goalies apparently no longer get the blame. Goalie coaches do.

“This is what I’ve been doing for 25 years so in some ways I should be prepared,” he said. “I know Toronto, so that should be helpful. I don’t know what’s going to unfold. I know there’s going to be some ups and downs, and again, why shouldn’t you expect that?”

While Allaire was with the Leafs all the time, St. Croix will be around 17 days a month, about six of those with the Marlies. He won’t have a chance to work directly with James Reimer until the NHL lockout ends, and for now will focus on Ben Scrivens, Jussi Rynnas, Mark Owuya and Andrew Engelage, all of whom are in the Marlie camp.

For Scrivens, arguably the AHL’s best goalie last season, the departure of Allaire was a loss.

“I still consider Frankie a friend and I respect his teaching style and approach to the game. It would have been great having another year with him,” said Scrivens. “That being said, you’ve got to turn the page.

“I’m not looking to change what I was doing under Frankie, I’m pretty comfortable with my game. The game I had last year I feel I can transition that into the NHL and hopefully I can pick up a few things from Rick and add those to the toolbox.”

For St. Croix, this tour of duty should be better than the last. Then, he was one of a group of eight goalies (St. Croix, Palmateer, Larocque, Bob Parent, Vincent Tremblay, Bruce Dowie, Allan Bester, Ken Wregget) that collectively surrendered an incredible 717 goals over two seasons.

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